


In The Woods

by Kyarorain



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-04
Updated: 2010-06-04
Packaged: 2017-10-09 23:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyarorain/pseuds/Kyarorain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ash, Brock, May and Max find themselves hopelessly lost in the woods at night, but mercifully stumble upon a place to stay. Then things start to get strange.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Woods

**In The Woods**

* * *

A short little fic about the random escapades of Ash and company...

Nintendo and Game Freak own Pokémon.

* * *

"It's starting to get dark," Max spoke in a small, scared voice. Normally, he wouldn't have been so worried about it getting dark, but at the moment, the group were walking through a dark and scary looking forest so he had every reason to be worried.

"Don't worry, Max. There's nothing to be afraid of," May spoke in a reassuring voice, placing her hands on her little brother's shoulders comfortingly. "I won't let anything happen to you, you know that."

"Hmm, this is strange. I was sure we would have been through the forest before nightfall." Brock reached into his pocket for the map and pulled it out, unfolding it and squinting intently at it. "Let's see... wait a minute, which way did we come in again? That's odd," he muttered to himself. Finally, he turned around with a sheepish grin on his face. "I think I may have been holding the map upside down by accident."

His younger travelling companions let out loud cries of complaint. Nobody particularly wanted to be lost in the middle of a forest while it was getting dark.

"Way to go, Brock." Ash sighed and jammed his hands into his pockets. He glanced at Pikachu, who sat upon his shoulder. "I guess we might have to sleep in this forest tonight, Pikachu."

"Pika," Pikachu said in a flat voice.

"Maybe you wouldn't have been reading the map wrong if you actually had eyes," Max said in a snide voice. "Oh, whoops, I just used an overused joke." He reached up and fiddled with his glasses, not seeming apologetic in the least.

"Now, come on, it's not that bad," Brock tried to reason with everyone. "I'm sure there aren't any scary Pokémon roaming through the woods at night looking for vulnerable, sleeping humans to feast on. That's just ridiculous. Whoever heard of being eaten by wild Pokémon?"

"Wild Pokémon can eat people?" May squeaked, clamping her hands over her cheeks and looking horrified. "Oh no! I don't want to be eaten by wild Pokémon!"

"Come on, guys, Brock's just making it up." Max chuckled nervously, a bead of sweat appearing on his head. "That was just a joke, right, Brock?"

"Well, to be honest, you don't often hear about people getting eaten by Pokémon, but if a Pokémon was hungry enough and just happened to find some live, vulnerable prey, who knows?" Brock spoke in a serious tone, sending chills travelling up everyone's spines.

"Hey, I just remembered the time I was almost eaten by an Aerodactyl," Ash spoke up suddenly. "So I guess there are some Pokémon who will eat people."

"Oh no! Why did you have to go and say that?" May sank to her knees, whimpering. "I won't be able to sleep at all tonight!"

"Look, I can see a light!" Max pointed frantically at a gap in the trees. "There must be a place where we can stay."

"Well, that's lucky." Brock folded up the map and put it away. "I didn't really think we would get eaten by wild Pokémon, but it will be nice to have a roof over our heads tonight."

Ash, Brock, May and Max hurried through the trees until they came to a clearing with a wooden hut. A light on the outside of the hut shone brilliantly, illuminating the surrounding area. As they walked up, Ash sharply rapped on the front door.

"Hello! Is anybody home?" Ash called out. "We got lost in the woods and would like to stay here tonight." After a few seconds, he was about to knock on the door again when it suddenly opened, sending him flying back onto the ground.

A wizened old woman with a yellowed smile and tangled white hair smiled up at everyone. "Ah, how nice to see a group of children. I get so few visitors out here in the woods. Did I hear that you all got lost?"

"Yeah, that's right." Ash stood up. "We don't really want to camp out in the woods, so would it be okay if we stayed here for the night?"

"We won't be any trouble at all," May assured her.

"Maybe I can even cook you dinner as well, if you haven't eaten yet," Brock suggested, holding up a frying pan.

"So can we stay?" Max asked.

"Of course you may." The woman's smile widened and she stepped back, gesturing for them to come inside. As they came in, she closed the door behind them. "My name is Gretel."

"I am Ash," Ash said.

"I am May and this is Max, my brother," May spoke up.

"I am Brock," Brock joined in. "Thank you very much for letting us stay here, Gretel."

"Oh, it's no problem at all," Gretel said quickly, waving a hand dismissively. "Let me show you all to your room." She led them down the hallway and opened a door, showing them a room with bunk beds. "In a place like this, I expect wandering travellers to turn up unannounced so I always make sure to be prepared. Make yourselves comfortable and I will go and make you all a wonderful dinner."

"You don't have to go to so much trouble for us," Ash said quickly. "Brock can cook us something."

"Nonsense," Gretel said firmly. "I am going to cook for you and that's final." She smiled pleasantly and walked away, leaving everyone feeling just a little bit bemused.

"Well, that's nice of her," May said finally.

"She was a little strange though," Max whispered.

"How can you say that, Max? She's just a kind and hospitable lady," Brock scolded. "We should be very thankful to her for doing so much for us."

"Yeah, I am, but..." Max shrugged and sighed, smiling weakly. "I guess it's just me then."

The quartet then spent a long while inside their room, chatting about random stuff, until they eventually heard Gretel calling them for dinner. They made their way to the kitchen where they saw a dining table laden with roast meats and vegetables.

"Wow, this is incredible!" May exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "I can't believe you went to so much trouble."

"Honestly, we would have been happy with just a small dinner." Ash rubbed the back of his head and grinned in embarrassment. "You really didn't have to do all this for us."

"You certainly are very kind," Brock commented. "We are indeed lucky to have met such a wonderful and hospitable lady like you."

"Oh, please, you'll make me blush." Gretel flapped her hands. "Go ahead, tuck in."

"This almost seems too good to be true," Max murmured under his breath so that nobody would hear him.

Everyone sat down at the table and happily tucked into the roast beef, roast lamb and roast chicken along with the roast potatoes, parsnips, and other assorted vegetables. None of them noticed how little their host was eating as they ate vigorously. The food was so delicious that it was hard to stop eating. Eventually, they were all leaning back in their seats and sighing contentedly, while patting their stomachs.

"I hope none of you are too full to eat," Gretel spoke, getting up from her chair. "I cooked you all dessert as well."

After tucking into the delicious apple pie, everyone was almost asleep at the table and feeling very contented after eating so much food. They were barely able to drag themselves back to their room where they all crawled into bed and fell asleep the moment their heads hit the pillows. Everyone slumbered on deeply through the night, until the morning came.

"Good morning, guys." Ash stretched his arms and yawned as he sat up in bed. "Ahh, that was a good sleep."

"Pika!" Pikachu seemed quite content after having spent a night curled up on a soft and comfortable bed.

"We all slept quite well, didn't we?" May smiled and rubbed her sleepy eyes. "I can't believe how much we managed to eat last night. That food was just so good, it was hard to stop eating."

"Well, you do have quite the appetite, May," Max teased, grinning.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" May growled, getting up and putting her face before his.

"Nothing," Max said quickly, putting his hands up and chuckling awkwardly.

"We should leave as soon as we can," Brock advised. "After all, we don't know where we are and the forest is quite a big place. It would be a good idea to get out of this forest as soon as we can."

A soft knock sounded on the door. Ash walked over to pull it open, looking down at Gretel.

"Is everybody awake?" Gretel asked, smiling pleasantly. "Great. I cooked you all a nice, big breakfast to start off your day."

"You really didn't have to do that," Ash said in an uncertain voice, smiling as a drop of sweat rolled down his head.

However, nobody was willing to reject Gretel's kind offer of breakfast, so they went to the kitchen again to find the table laden with plates of bacon, eggs, buttered toast, fried toast, French toast and fruit. Despite having had such a large meal the night before, everyone found that they were quite ravenous for some reason and wolfed down as much as they could, not even questioning why they suddenly had so much appetite.

For some odd reason, eating such a big breakfast made everyone sleepy and they all went back to bed, snoozing well through the day. They woke up much later, only to find that Gretel had made them a nice big lunch as well. After consuming vast amounts of sushi, sashimi, rice balls, tempura and ramen, everyone found themselves too tired to do anything except return to bed and sleep some more. None of them wondered why they were feeling so sleepy.

* * *

"Hey, Jessie." James glanced at his red haired partner, frowning anxiously. "It's been quite a while since we've last seen the twerps, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has actually." Jessie leaned over the side of the basket and looked down, looking quite discontented. "It must have been nearly a week we last ambushed them and we haven't seen hide nor hair of them ever since. What's going on here?"

"Maybe they are avoiding us," Meowth guessed, lying on his back in the basket and gazing up at the base of the Meowth head that was the balloon. "Whatever they are doing, I don't like it. If we can't find them, how are we supposed to grab that Pikachu?"

"This is no fun," James complained, sitting down and sighing, resting his chin in one hand. "I need my daily entertainment."

"I know what you mean." Jessie sighed and looked around, seeing nothing but empty land down below. "For some reason, I'm itching to say the motto and we don't even have any reason to say it yet."

"Hmm." Meowth sat up and crossed his arms over his chest, looking pensive. "We passed over some really big forest before, didn't we? What if those twerps were stupid enough to get lost in there?"

"For a week?" James looked at him sceptically. "Come on, Meowth, even the twerps aren't stupid enough to get lost in a forest for a week. Okay, maybe the twerp with the Pikachu is."

"I've had it with those annoying twerps!" Jessie snapped, clenching her fists and looking furious. James and Meowth squeaked and clutched onto each other, momentarily frightened by Jessie's rather sudden mood swing. "How dare they hide from us like this and waste our time! When we next see them, Team Rocket shall make them pay!" She raised a fist, her eyes practically glowing with fire.

"Good idea," James stuttered out, his mouth twitching in a hesitant smile.

"Yeah." Meowth nodded frantically.

* * *

"Good morning, everyone." Max sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Ash, May and Brock were all waking up as well, feeling quite refreshed after the long sleep they had yesterday. He looked toward the window, seeing sunlight streaming through the curtains. "I wonder what we should do today?"

"What was it we were supposed to do?" Ash felt like he was forgetting something important, but he just couldn't remember what it was. "Gosh, it feels like all we've been doing is sleeping lately. Maybe because that's all we've been doing."

"Don't forget eating." May slipped out of bed and stood up, stretching her arms. "Gretel's been cooking us so much wonderful food. She's such a nice lady." She reached down and patted her flabby stomach, then stopped. Wait, it was flabby? May looked down at her stomach, which definitely seemed to be sticking out more than she was comfortable with, and released a horrified scream.

"Whoah! What's the matter, May? What did you scream for?" Ash recoiled, startled by her unnaturally loud screaming.

"I... I..." May whimpered, struggling to get the words out. "I'm fat!" Tears pooled up in her eyes. "How could this have happened?"

Max stared at his sister, resisting the urge to start teasing her. He sensed that now was really not a good time to be doing it and it would be better to keep his mouth shut if he didn't want to suddenly make May an only child.

"It must be because all we've been doing is eating and sleeping," Brock said, shaking his head. "We really need to get back on the road."

Ash was silent, looking deeply thoughtful. "How long have we been here now? I've lost track of time."

"Hmm." Brock rubbed his chin. "I'm pretty sure we've been here at least a week."

May wiped the tears from her eyes. She wasn't going to cry about something like this, not in front of the others. It was just too embarrassing. "I think we should leave. The contests won't wait forever and I've got to get my figure back. Why have we been here so long anyway?"

"Every time we ate, we would be too tired to leave," Max complained. "What happened to us? Why do we keep sleeping all the time? There must be something weird going on."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Max." Brock was climbing down the ladder of the bunk bed. "We've just got a bit lazy, that's all."

"Seriously?" Max looked at him, aghast. Could he not see that something was wrong here?

"Maybe we've just fallen in love with that old lady's food so much, that we don't want to leave." Ash chuckled, also coming down from his bed. "Actually, why don't we just skip breakfast and go? I think we should get an early start while we're still feeling awake."

"May, don't you think that something's wrong?" Max wheedled, hoping his sister would see sense.

"Max, you're just being paranoid." May seemed to be more preoccupied with pinching her arms and legs. The youngest boy sighed and looked away despondently. How come nobody believed him?

Everyone was already dressed and ready to leave, when Gretel knocked and opened the door. She smiled at her guests. "Good morning. I see that you're all up, just in time for breakfast."

Max frowned. Was it just him or did she always just happen to come to the door when they were all ready to eat breakfast or leave? It wasn't just in the morning either. Whenever they woke up later in the day, she was there to announce that she had just finished preparing lunch or dinner. There was definitely something strange about that woman and he was going to find out the truth.

"Um, actually, Gretel, we were going to leave now," Ash said in an apologetic tone. "We really need to get back on the road."

"Oh dear. I had just made you all such a large breakfast. It would be such a terrible shame for all that bacon and egg and toast and everything to go to waste. I couldn't possibly eat it all by myself." Crocodile tears formed in Gretel's eyes, which were suddenly large and luminous.

Max's eyes narrowed as he watched the lady with an intense stare. Why had she gone to the trouble of preparing such a large breakfast for them without even checking first? In fact, she had been making them large meals every day, without even bothering to see if they wanted to stay and eat beforehand. It was as if she was trying to force them to stay, which he believed she was.

"Oh, well..." Ash swallowed, looking uncomfortable. He didn't want to see the old lady cry because of them. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have breakfast?"

"If we leave after breakfast, it should be okay." Brock came over, standing next to Ash. "You are so kind, Gretel, cooking all that food for us. How could we possibly let your efforts go to waste?"

Max's mouth dropped down so far that his jaw almost slammed into the floor. Couldn't they see what was happening here? That old lady was obviously manipulating them into staying.

May let out a faint moan, lowering her head in disappointment. She really didn't want to stay any longer and definitely didn't want to have to eat another large meal. The young girl consoled herself with the thought that it wasn't like she had to eat a lot of food. If she just ate a small meal, it would be okay.

Everyone went into the kitchen and began eating. May, however, didn't eat as much as everyone else just as she had promised herself. It was a shame really since the food was quite delicious but she was desperate not to ruin her figure any further. At some point during the meal, May was vaguely aware of Gretel saying she was popping out to get some more food and other things.

May sat back in her chair, pushing away her empty plate. She had only eaten a few slices of toast and jam, hardly daring to touch the other stuff that was on the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ash stifling a yawn and a frown crossed her forehead. How was it possible they could be getting tired so soon after they had woken up anyway? Something had to be causing them to sleep all the time, but what was it?

"Wow. I'm already sleepy." Brock reached up and rubbed his eyes. "I think I'll need to have a nap at this rate."

"Guys, don't you think something strange is going on here?" May looked around frantically.

"This is all your fault, Ash," Max muttered lethargically. "You could have just said no."

"But she was going to cry." Ash yawned again, not even bothering to cover it. "This isn't good. Pikachu, can you shock me and wake me up?"

Pikachu didn't answer, as he was fast asleep on the floor in front of a half-eaten bowl of Pokémon food. Gretel had been nice enough to provide Pokémon food for Pikachu, so that Brock didn't have to go to the trouble of doing it himself, and it seemed to have much the same effect on Pikachu as the regular food did on everybody else.

May got up and marched over to the cupboards, frantically opening them. "What kind of clue will May's Expedition Team find today?" she muttered to herself, trying to calm her nerves. Something weird was definitely going on here. Then she saw it, standing there on a shelf, and gasped.

Before she could say anything, the offending object seemed to vanish before her very eyes and in place of it was a leering face looking right back at her with a toothy grin. May opened her mouth to scream, finding herself frozen to the spot as a wave of energy flowed over her. Suddenly, her legs felt so heavy that she could barely even move and her eyes were refusing to stay open any longer.

"May!" Max exclaimed as his sister crashed to the floor. "Are you okay?"

Brock got up and hastily walked over to where May was, kneeling next to her prone form and checking over her. "It's ok, she just seems to be asleep. I guess she must have been really tired."

"No kidding." Ash blinked in surprise. "Maybe we should get to bed again before we all pass out."

Max gazed at his plate with a frown. It did seem like Gretel was drugging them all the time, but why was she doing this? He followed Ash and Brock back to the bedroom with a troubled expression. Sooner or later, they were going to have to get to the bottom of this mystery.

May awoke later that morning, sitting up in bed and gasping. She had seen a very important clue on the shelf, but what was it? How could she have gone and forgotten it? If she hadn't fallen asleep so quickly then, maybe she would have actually remembered. The brunette slipped out of the bed and looked around the room, seeing Ash, Brock and Max all fast asleep in their beds. The only reason she was awake was because she hadn't eaten as much food as they had.

"Hmm." May put her hands on her hips. "May's Expedition Team is going to get to the bottom of this mystery. I'm not going to let anyone stop me this time." She walked to the door and opened it, peering out and listening intently. Since she didn't hear anything, the coast was hopefully clear. May held her breath and walked to the kitchen, hoping Gretel wouldn't pop out of nowhere all of a sudden and knock her out, or even worse.

The elderly lady was nowhere in sight and May reached her destination safe and sound. "Phew. That wasn't so hard," she commented, looking around the kitchen. Out the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a thick book lying on the counter. "Huh, I didn't see that before." The young co-ordinator walked over to the counter to get a better look at the cover.

May then screamed in horror.

Back inside the bedroom, everyone was continuing to sleep in their beds. They didn't even wake up as May ran into the room and slammed the door behind herself, breathing heavily. She ran to Max, who slept in the other bottom bunk. "Max, wake up!" she exclaimed, shaking him desperately.

"Hm?" Max slowly awoke, blinking sleepily. "Sis? What's wrong?"

"Look!" May frantically pointed at the cover of the book, her eyes wide in terror.

Max peered at the cover and gasped as well. "A hundred ways to cook humans?"

"She's a cannibal!" May shrieked. "She's fattening us up to eat!"

Max fell silent, frowning in consternation. "No way. She can't be a cannibal." That just seemed far too ridiculous to him.

"Then how do you explain this?" May asked incredulously. She stopped as she noticed Max staring in sheer terror at her... or rather, something over her shoulder. The young girl turned around to see what it was. A moment later, they both disappeared without a trace.

An hour later, Ash and Brock awoke.

"Man, I can't believe we did it again," Ash groaned. "We really have got to stop doing this."

"If that lady tries her crocodile tears on us again, we have to try our best to resist," Brock said. "It's hard to say no to a lady who's in tears though."

"Well, she's just going to have to accept that we can't stay here and eat her food forever," Ash spoke firmly. "I swear, she's a bit nuts. Why does she want us to be eating her food and sleeping in our house all the time?" He sighed and shook his head. The way she was acting couldn't be normal. "Hey, May, Max, you two up yet?" He leaned over the side of the bed and peered down. "Huh? Where are they?"

Brock looked down as well. "That's strange. Maybe they woke up before we did."

"Well, let's go find them." Ash got out of bed and so did Brock. They quickly got ready and headed out of the bedroom, then started their search of the house. It was a very small house with few rooms. In fact, the only other rooms were the kitchen and the living room. There was no sign of May, Max or Gretel.

"Where could they be?" Ash paced around the kitchen, looking worried. "I don't believe they would have left the house without us."

"And why doesn't Gretel have her own room?" Brock wondered out loud.

"We have more important things to be thinking about," Ash pointed out, giving him a dry look. "Though... I suppose you're right. That's strange. Maybe the room we were sleeping in is actually her room and she gave it up for us. She might have been sleeping in the living room."

Brock shook his head. "Then where does she keep her things? There isn't even a closet in there. Besides, why would she force us to stay here for so long in that case?"

Ash jammed his hands into his pockets, looking stumped. "Uh... well... eh, it doesn't really matter right now, does it?" He sighed in frustration. "Where could they be?"

"Pika!" Pikachu suddenly exclaimed, getting their attention. The electric mouse Pokémon was frantically pointing at a tapestry hanging from the wall.

"Did you find something, Pikachu?" Ash walked over and lifted the tapestry, revealing a door behind it. "Eh? What is this?" He pulled the door open and peered down a flight of steps leading down. A light was shining at the bottom. "May and Max must be down here."

"In the cellar?" Brock followed Ash down the steps, seeming perturbed. "Just what is going on?"

Deep within the cellar, the boys soon found their missing friends as well as their host. May and Max were both tied up against the wall, while Gretel stood before a boiling pot of water. The old lady turned around to see Ash and Brock and a macabre smile spread across her face.

"Oh dear, I waited too long, didn't I? I was waiting until I got hungry, but it looks like I made a mistake." Gretel shook her head. "How problematic."

"What are you doing?" Brock asked, clenching a fist. "Just who are you?"

"Let May and Max go now!" Ash demanded angrily. He then frowned in confusion. "I don't understand. Why would you wait until you were hungry to... what are you planning to do to them anyway?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Brock stared at him in disbelief. "She's a cannibal!"

"Cannibal? Is that a Pokémon?" Ash asked, looking blank.

"Ugh! Ash, just have Pikachu attack her and you'll see what's going on!" May shouted.

"Hopeless," Max muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

"Uh, right... Pikachu, thunderbolt now!" Ash demanded, pointing toward Gretel. Pikachu leaped into the air and released a massive bolt of electricity that struck Gretel.

The old lady screamed as the electricity coursed through her body and immediately she started to change shape. Ash and Brock watched on in astonishment as she shifted into a swirling cloud of gas with a round face within.

"That's no cannibal!" Ash exclaimed in shock. "That's a Gastly!"

"We sought protection from wild Pokémon that eat people only to be trapped by a Pokémon that eats people. How ironic is that?" Max rolled his eyes.

"So the Gastly took on the form of an old lady and took in travellers so that it could fatten them up to eat," Brock said. "We fell right into its trap."

The Gastly leered at them and chuckled.

"How many people did you eat, huh?" Ash asked furiously, clenching a fist. "You're terrible! I can't forgive you for doing something like this! Pikachu, use Thunder!" He was seriously mad at the Gastly for wasting so much of their time. He could have had his next badge by now if it hadn't been for that pesky Pokémon.

What Ash hadn't noticed was the gas oven that was turned on and sitting in the corner of the room. The electricity struck it and the entire cottage exploded.

Team Rocket happened to be flying nearby in their balloon, desperately searching for Ash and co. so that they could make a lame attempt to steal Pikachu and noticed the explosion. Curiously, they landed the balloon next to the smoking wreckage to check it out. A couple of minutes later, the shocked twerps crawled out from under the debris.

"How on earth did we survive that?" Max looked over his shoulder at the ruined cottage in astonishment.

"Probably the same way Team Rocket survives all those blasting offs..." Brock looked up, noticing the trio of thieves. "Oh, speak of the devils."

"Where have you been?" Jessie screamed angrily. "We've been searching for you twerps for ages and the whole time you've been hanging around in some cottage?"

"Yeah, you've wasted about a week of our time, and time is money, you know!" James pointed at them.

"So we'll just have to steal all of your Pokémon and send them to the boss as compensation," Meowth chimed in, smirking.

"I'm really not in the mood for this right now," May muttered darkly, getting to her feet. "I just want to get to the nearest gym!"

"Me too!" Ash exclaimed. "I've got to get my next badge!"

"I think she was talking about the other kind of gym," Brock pointed out.

"Uh, right... what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash exclaimed, pointing at Team Rocket.

Team Rocket was so startled that they had no time to react to the sudden attack. A second later, they were sailing off into the sky after getting zapped. "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

"Great, now let's take their balloon and get out of these woods." Ash jumped into the basket, followed by his companions. The balloon rose off into the sky and floated away, watched by a pair of eyes that faded away into the shadows.


End file.
